Automatic weapon ownership before 1934

You didn't even have to do that. They had a mail order catalog!

The average person couldn't afford a $200 gun. The average U.S. income was $500/month in 1928. Then the Depression hit.

Before 1934, all anyone needed to own a machine gun was money. Which not many people had, but that was the only requirement.

Yeah, the idea was a great weapon for all...



Not that a working farm hand could have afforded such a thing (or maybe any gun at all) but the big ranchers probably could have, if they'd felt the need was there. Then again, I imagine their thoughts of range defense probably encompassed a need for longer range weapons.

Actually prior to the Great Depression when most were broke you had the Roaring Twenties.
Prior to the Roaring Twenties was the Great War where machineguns and trench warfare were the name of the game.

So you had a period of time after machineguns became widespread militarily, and when many people had large disposable income.



Evidence strongly points to the Bonus Army actually being the primary cause for action in limiting power held by civilians by reducing thier access to machineguns. While gangsters were the public relations reason, fear of trained people that could pose a serious problem if armed, primarily veterans who wanted work and WW1 guaranteed benefits during the Depression, are who put fear into lawmakers.
After a surprise routing of them with tanks when they thought a parade in thier honor was being thrown, and bulldozing thier encampments near DC, they certainly didn't want the previously primarily peaceful protestors returning in a less peaceful manner.
At the time citizens armed with machineguns and backed with some mines, trenches, and a little more would actually have power on par with the military.
People with such power next to the Capitol were seen as a serious threat, thier desire to have benefits and social care was also seen as a socialist/communist threat at a time when Communism was making huge advances and rising up around the world.
FDR was present, not yet president, but within a year they would be pusing legislation banning machineguns.
Of course at that time nobody believed the government had the authority to ban anything. So they put a tax on them that they felt would be struck down eventually and legal scholars of the time said had little chance of standing even those who supported the restriction, but would nearly ban them temporarily.

Yes, Tommy guns could be mail ordered with no issues. Plenty of hardware stores sold them too. There were several businesses in Chicago that would rent out Tommy Guns by the day or whatever other length of time was needed by employees of Al Capone or others. The 1934 National Firearms Act only affected machine guns and short barreled guns. The current view we have of guns didn't become a reality until the Gun Control Act of 1968. Prior to that, guns weren't even required to have serial numbers. You can still find some older Mossberg .22 rifles that were made before 1968 that don't have and aren't required to have serial numbers due to their age. There are other makes out there that fit the same bill.

(Actually, I am not sure if there was a such thing as a convicted felon back then. After a man served his prison sentence, even murder, his debt to society was considered paid and he was the same as before he went in)

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Completely untrue. Felony disenfranchisement existed in early colonial America and long before in Europe.

FDR pushed legislation that would have effectively banned all guns, not just machineguns, through confiscatory taxes on guns and ammunition. Congress wouldn't go along with most of the bill, but did pass the machinegun tax bill as the National Firearms Act. The original bill proposed (IIRC) transfer taxes of $5000 on machinegus, $1000 on handguns, $500 on rifles, and $200 on shotguns. There was also to be a tax of $5 on a round of handgun ammo, $1 on rifle ammo (including .22) and $.50 on shotshells. As others noted, those sums would have been impossible to raise for any but the wealthy, but then most members of the "populist" administration were very wealthy.

FDR also started the practice of proposing the most draconian anti-gun legislation while pretending to be a shooter and hunter. Of course, we now know that his legs were totally paralyzed, but at that time it was kept secret and few knew it. One time, he was taken to a military rifle range, dressed in a shooting jacket, and laid down with a Springfield rifle. He turned half around, as if he had just finished a string and gave his famous smile for the photographer. Then he was picked up and driven back to the White House. He never fired a shot and may never have fired a rifle in his life, but the picture was put in the gun and hunting magazines (all two or three of them) to show that he was "one of us."

So, Kerry and Obama were merely carrying on a tradition of fakery and lies in claiming to be shooters and hunters.

Jim

Wow, Sam, I'm saving that ad off. That's really cool.

Amazing how close we came to the "end of it all" well before I was even born.

People today are so short-sighted, all they think of is themselves.. but we have to be in this for our children, grandchildren, etc.

Yeah. The idea of what the NFA COULD have been is terrifying. We wouldn't be here discussing the things we do, that's for sure. 1934 was a kind of turning point where we either headed toward the swampy end of the road where Britain now stands, or not.

Glad some folks were aware enough to choose "not." Even if they weren't quite smart enough to ditch the whole stupid plan.

It was a trying time for members of the NRA - all 25,000 of them.

Jim

Jim K said:

It was a trying time for members of the NRA - all 25,000 of them.

Jim

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From sound roots, large oak trees grow.

Don't think the socialists understood that they were "waking us up".

Shame things went south in 68 and 84 again.. and 94.. we've been on the losing end for so long it's hard to contemplate that it took us almost 80 years to gain parity in the gun rights struggle. Even now, it's still a damn narrow margin, always a few votes away from losing more ground, everywhere we turn.